Ellen in Happier Times

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The above picture of Ellen Datlow was taken in London in John and Judith Clute's flat in Camden Town.  Alas, just days later, she took a step wrong and wrenched her ankle.  I saw her again at the BSFS meeting a day after she'd been reassured that it would heal by itself, and her ankle had swelled alarmingly and turned a quite fetching shade of pinkish-red that wouldn't have looked out of place in the fresh fruit section of the supermarket.  Everybody, myself included, urged her to go back for a second opinion.

Today she goes in for surgery.

Well . . . the prospects look good, and she'd got Pat Cadigan nearby to pay visits and raise spirits, as Pat does quite well.  But Ellen deserves better.  As one of R. A. Lafferty's characters, a French Canadian, once put it, "There are days when le bon Dieu is not so bon.  He and I are due for a long talk on this very matter."

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